As you say, Mana seems to be pretty clear on it.

I think it's not got big support because it's quite a radical idea. It would cost a hell of a lot of money, so the details of where that money…

The Green Party "supports…

No, I'd expect them to maintain standards. But they might get more people who meet standards, if the pool of people who could afford the time increased dramatically. If they then simply…

I think this might actually be a good thing. People who…

Pretty much any muggins with enough neural power can become a lawyer, as routinely bewailed by those who want our universities to turn out higher numbers…

Especially since we now have the ability to bring our super funds back to NZ. I would rather outsource working out how to do that.

Which is interesting in light of how Social Credit was mainly a rural party. I don't think farmers so much as people from small towns, though. A UBI…

You do? I thought that was all but impossible with the USA.

Ideally I would use the living wage, estimated (pdf) at 57K for a family…

I'm a big fan of a UBI but I don't see it working with a flat tax. I actually included some thoughts about what I would do to tax in conjunction with a UBI here.

But I like the idea of $14K UBI (effectively National…

The marginal effects of not treating the UBI as income on non-UBI recipients could be interesting (immigrants, people who are not tax residents, for example). That paper also assumes that no employer will change wages after the UBI is introduced.…

For those on low incomes, there would be a higher basic rate of tax which would be offset by the UBI income.

As incomes increased, this effect would reduce.

For high incomes, say $100k+, a…

That is what I thought too until I read this.

The compelling argument for me was that the difference in tax between the current system, and a flat tax at the top rate, was around…

I don't see the point, like Keir says that doesn't affect the private sector at all. Much better to tax everyone and hunt down avoidance with a big sharp…

NZ would have to define one, first. Pull-ya Benefit has strongly resisted calls to establish a formal poverty level.

That would mean…

I'm a big fan. As part of a radical simplification of the benefits system it would be great.

But most people don't think of the tax system as part of the benefits system, so I think it…

Why couldn’t they get the people who use it to design…

I'd suspect though, that this is a bit like income tax on property trading – you have to be "taking the piss" to a fair degree before the…

If you're a co-owner of a company, then you are a shareholder, and excessive remuneration to a shareholder, or an associated person of a shareholder (eg. a spouse / civil union partner / de facto partner) gets treated as a dividend and taxed accordingly.…

They do. WHICH IS INSANE. So my husband does a tax return for both countries, but only pays tax here. Pointless…

I think that's an argument for better tax breaks for low-income folk, rather than an argument for "give huge benefits to the rich, and hope the poor also…

Does this apply if you're co-owners of a limited company, or have a business partnership?

Thanks. I was sort-of hoping so as it's nice reassurance that we're not missing out simply because of ethics.

But remember my accountant was trying to encourage me to maybe push that envelope by getting my wife to do some make work in our company – I'm glad I pushed back

No, but my…

Section DC 5 of the Income Tax Act 2007

DC 5 Payments to spouses, civil union partners, or de facto partners: services
No deduction without approval
(1) A person is denied a deduction for a payment to their spouse, civil union partner, or de facto…

That's very similar to what I'm doing with Australia (but not as…

my accountant originally suggested I do this…

I'm new as a sole trader and…

File your GST returns online. Let the computer remember the "Mazda rule" (divide by 3 then multiply by 23,…

People are often very keen on income splitting. But it's worth knowing the numbers around it. A couple of examples, one set at the level of the top tax threshold, and one set at a joint household income of $80,000.

1) If one person earns…

I've run a…

That's the fault of a lack of income splitting rather than the fault of secondary…

Yes, indeed. I've found that I can do…

So, imagine you earn more than $70,000 a year, so you're on the top tax rate of 33% for every dollar in…

You mean like the 100% deduction of the cost of a third-party's help in preparing an income tax return? That kind of discount?

Yes. When I was studying that was the biggest problem with secondary tax – the fact that I was on a super tight income and yet they were deducting student loan repayments when I wasn't going to earn over the…

Very true. Trying to explain the NZ system to Australians or merkins is hard because they really struggle to understand how a tax system could be designed to raise money, rather than be…

I’ve generally found…

*I'm expecting and have in fact already spent my fairly decent tax refund this year, and have been stalking the IRD website to find out when it will show up.

It's actually July, not April. You can file from 1 April but refunds are not made until the due-date for filing tax returns has passed which is 7 July.

People get confused when told that they'll get their refund after the end of the tax…

Jeez, it's hard to find, but here's the form to fix the problem: IR23BS

You do have to go looking for it, though.

Agree that the principle of avoiding big bills at the end of the year is important, but surely there's a problem here in that causing cashflow issues for people on low incomes working multiple jobs is a…

Not everyone understands that idea. Fortunately, perhaps.

The worst was in Oz when I transitioned from being self-employed (IT contracting) to cycle touring. The…

Nope, but you don't get charged interest on the period of time (up to nearly two years) that you might owe tax before it's first due. After that, you get penalised, but I got overpaid…

Not for things like this, no. It's just part of the cost of paying tax. OTOH, if they did pay inetrest it would probably be at the rate government normally pays when they borrow money...…

The real problem is that most New Zealanders…

Many thanks for posting this, Russell.